Gource visualization (including set.mm)

Software and mathematics are often difficult for others to visualize. Computer hardware engineers can often have cool props to distribute during their talks, but software developers and mathematicians work with ideas of the mind - no physical objects involved. This can sometimes make it difficult to explain important ideas like open source software (OSS). The idea of “people collaborating to produce something” is easy enough, but getting a true visceral understanding of what happens can be hard. Gource is a cool visualization tool that makes it easy to see “collaboration in action”. The Gource project even has a web page showing some examples of Gource visualization . I recently created a Gource visualization of the Metamath set.mm project . Some context is important here. In mathematics, claims are supposed to be rigorously proven, but humans are fallible; they make mistakes, and others often miss those mistakes. The solution to this problem is to rigorously describe mathematics in a formal way so that every step can be rigorously and automatically checked by a computer. This turns out to be difficult, and requires that a lot of people work together. Now… how can you visualize people working together to rigorously prove mathematical claims? One way is to use Gource… because while it doesn’t show everything, you at least get a sense of the collaboration. In this case, 48 people have contributed so far. This visualization shows a common feature: in many cases, a single person starts and makes all the contributions for a while. The same thing happens if you view, for example, a Gource visualization of the Python programming language . Gource is itself OSS, so you can download it and use it to create your own visualizations. I strongly recommend that you automate doing it as much as possible. For example, if you process data first, use a script to automate processing the data. You’ll need to give Gource various options; store options in its config file or a scripts. If you create a Gource video, I strongly recommend adding some music or at least an audio commentary. If you add music, make sure it’s legal to add; the safe route is to use music released under open licenses such as Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) or CC0 Public Domain Dedication (CC0) . Beware of the “non-commercial use” licenses - your releases might count as “commercial” even if you don’t think they do (talk to a lawyer if you want to go down that path). A great place to start for Gource music is audionautix.com , which has released lots of music under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License; you can select from lots of different styles and get some great options. Improving Gource Videos with Background and Audio has some tips and instructions. In conclusion: enjoy my Gource visualization of the Metamath set.mm project … and perhaps it will inspire you to do something similar. I’ve embedded the video below so you can easily view it (if you like)